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8 | MARCH 4 • 2021 

guest column
Not Funny, Very Hateful
O

n NBC’s Saturday 
Night Live on Feb. 
20, comedian 
Michael Che “joked” that 
Israel had vaccinated half of 
its population 
— the Jewish 
half.
The point 
is not wheth-
er Che or the 
“joke” were 
antisemitic. 
The questions 
are whether it is true and if 
it encourages prejudice and 
violence against Jews.
Critiquing Israel is fine. 
Israelis and Jews do it all the 
time. However, a one-off joke 
about Jews keeping a vaccine 
only for themselves, without 
context and devoid of any 
truth is not — given Jewish 
history and current threats —

a critique.
And the joke did not 
appear out of nowhere. The 
joke would not have been 
made if the audience had not 
been subjected to weeks of 
misinformation and unfair 
allegations against Israel for 
the alleged sin of not provid-
ing vaccines to Palestinians 
in the West Bank and Gaza. 
In short, it was the natural 
outcome of a sustained cam-
paign of lies — the types of 
lies that have led to injury 
and death to Jews in the past.
Israel is vaccinating all its 
citizens regardless of reli-
gion or ethnic or national 
background. This includes 
the almost 2 million Israeli 
citizens who are Arab. This 
is unremarkable because all 
Israelis are covered equally 
by Israel’s universal health 

care system.
What prompted the “joke” 
was undoubtedly the unfair 
and unjustified charges that 
Israel is not providing the 
vaccine to the West Bank and 
Gaza. The “joke” was neither 
funny nor accurate.

On Dec. 21, the Palestinian 
Authority declared that it was 
not seeking vaccines from 
Israel and that it was secur-
ing its own supplies. Israeli 
offers to coordinate efforts 
were rejected. 
But once several human 

Alan 
Edelstein
Times of Israel

PURELY COMMENTARY

continued on page 12

SCREENSHOT, JNS

SNL “Weekend Update” anchor Michael Che

